Page 4092 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 16 Sept 2009
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This is another situation where the government is behind the community. It is even behind business. I will read out some business names: Woolworths—I do believe they are a supermarket—McDonald’s. These are businesses which have moved away from cage eggs.
Mr Stanhope: No, they have not.
MS BRESNAN: We have had it acknowledged. Businesses have said that.
Mr Stanhope: Woolworths have not, Amanda.
MS BRESNAN: They have not said that? They have come out and made statements that they are moving away from cage eggs. So they are doing it. Woolworths is a supermarket, is it not? It is a supermarket. There we go.
Mr Coe: They are a corporation that owns a supermarket.
Mr Hanson: They are a massive corporation.
MS BRESNAN: And it is a supermarket, is it not? It is a supermarket. Vicki was saying, “Supermarkets have not been consulted; they do not want to do this.” Supermarkets such as Woolworths are already doing it. The government’s approach means support will be given to inhumane—
Mr Hanson: They do not care where their eggs come from. They import them from Sydney. They will get them from wherever they want.
MS BRESNAN: There you go. I guess they will, will they not?
Mr Hanson: They will.
MS BRESNAN: They will. Let me remind everyone again of the conditions in battery-cage farms. Ms Le Couteur has talked about this a number of times before. But the Assembly needs to hear again about the system they continue to support. There is no doubt about the physical and mental suffering caused to hens in battery cages.
The most recent major international review was the Laywel report, Welfare implications of changes in production systems for laying hens. It was a European Union scientific project led by the world renowned team at Bristol University. It concluded:
Conventional cages do not allow hens to fulfil behaviour priorities, preferences and needs for nesting, perching, foraging and dustbathing, in particular. The severe spatial restriction also leads to disuse osteoporosis … The evidence from this report has in the main substantiated previous scientific knowledge that the welfare of laying hens is severely compromised in conventional cages.
The animal protection community has been united for decades, saying that this is a system of farming that severely compromises the welfare of animals.
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